Formation of Superthin Galaxies in IllustrisTNG

Abstract

Superthin galaxies are observed to have stellar disks with extremely small minor-to-major axis ratios. In this work, we investigate the formation of superthin galaxies in the TNG100 simulation. We trace the merger history and investigate the evolution of galaxy properties of a selected sample of superthin galaxies and a control sample of galaxies that share the same joint probability distribution in the stellar-mass and color diagram. Through making comparisons between the two galaxy samples, we find that present-day superthin galaxies had similar morphologies as the control sample counterparts at higher redshifts, but have developed extended flat “superthin” morphologies since z ∼ 1. During this latter evolution stage, superthin galaxies undergo an overwhelmingly higher frequency of prograde mergers (with orbit-spin angle θ orb ≤ 40°). Accordingly the spins of their dark matter halos have grown significantly and become noticeably higher than those of their normal disk counterparts. This further results in the buildup of their stellar disks at larger distances much beyond the regimes of normal disk galaxies. We also discuss the formation scenario of those superthin galaxies that live in larger dark matter halos as satellite galaxies therein.